What is the carb cycling diet?

Carbs have got an unnecessarily bad rep, because people view them as perpetrators of weight gain, diabetes and other ills. However, carbs cannot be eliminated completely from your diet, since they are an essential source of energy for your body – the body simply cannot function to the optimum without them. Using the carb cycling diet instead, is an effective tool to have your cake and eat it too!

Carb cycling is nothing but the organised intake of carbohydrates, tailormade to each individual based on their needs and activities. The idea is to eat very few carbs for a couple of days, following one day of eating a lot of carbs! If you’re a pro at it, you can even opt for no carb days in between. The idea is to make sure that your body has enough reserves of carbs to burn off, and you don’t keep stocking up on them unnecessarily. However, just as the energy reserves are being depleted, you stock up on them again. This structured intermittent intake prevents you from eating more carbs than required.

High carb days help with muscle growth and performance, while the low carb days help with metabolism and weight loss. Weight loss is easier on the carb cycling plan, since you’re not getting rid of carbs completely and your body isn’t craving it – carbs help secrete leptin, which prevents unhealthy food cravings. At the same time, you have enough opportunity to get other nutrients like protein, fat and so on, while losing weight and keeping other ailments like Type 2 diabetes at bay.

With the high carb days, you can eat whole grain bread or pasta, brown or red rice, quinoa, lentils, legumes, oats, sweet potatoes, corn, peas, and fruits like bananas, mangoes and pineapples. It goes without saying that high carb days need not involve an intake of sugar, refined flour, white bread, deep-fried food and desserts. On low carb days, opt for eggs, lean meat, seeds, fruits, fresh green leafy veggies, cheeses, yoghurt and so on.